[Carry_Okie]

And the Democrats refuse to tear up the union contracts since the unions happen to be major contributors to the politicians here.

I'm not sure they have the legal power to do it. The only real alternative is to outsource and the state has all kinds of legal walls in the way of that.

[goldstategop]

Either way a handle on the budget is not going to happen any time soon. My guess is they'll paper over this problem for years to come and ignore the constitutional requirement of a balanced budget because the politically easy way out is also the least painful one. They're not going to get punished for passing a "balanced budget" built on funny money and other gimmicks.